Jeffrey Penrod Adams

Jeffrey Penrod Adams was born January 1,1960 in Provo, Utah, just missing the chance to give his parents a tax break but not early enough to get the benefits of being the first baby born in the New Year in that community. The firstborn of five children born to Karelyn and LaVere Adams, Jeff was precocious and well loved, as were almost all of his siblings.

When Jeff was just a toddler, the family moved to Hayward, California where his parents pursued careers in education. Always looking for fun and adventure, when he was eight, he decided it would be fun to put a swing in the tree in their yard, so he climbed the tree, rope in hand, and proceeded to tie the knots that would hold the swing in place. Unfortunately, Jeff had not yet gotten involved in scouting and did not know how to tie a square knot, so he fell and hit his head. For weeks, he suffered from headaches, and when he didn’t want Thanksgiving dinner, his mom knew something was really wrong. They took him to the emergency room, where they found a blood clot and quickly performed brain surgery, which saved his life. We think they left most of his brain intact, but were never really sure.

The family later moved to Pleasanton, California. Jeff loved scouting and earned his Eagle rank thanks to an ambitious Eagle project. He wanted to erect a flagpole at the church building where the scouts met. To raise the funds, he had to sell tickets to a 4th of July pancake breakfast which he had to coordinate. The flagpole was erected, and the pancake breakfast became a tradition that lived on for years. He hiked, camped, and attended Scout Jamborees over the years.

When Jeff was a teenager, his family moved to Germany where his parents taught school with the American military for a couple of years. He traveled to most countries in Europe. He went skiing in the alps, hiking through the Black Forest, and biking across the English countryside. You could find him involved in most activities in school, whether it was playing the trombone, serving in student government, or being part of various sports teams.

He had a love affair with Porsche cars. He was even able to persuade an acquaintance to let him borrow his Porsche to take his date to the prom. But his love for speed got the best of him as he was clocked doing 120+ mph on the freeway and lost his license.

Jeff served as a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in both Germany and Tennessee forging friendships that lasted for years. He graduated Summa Cum Laude from BYU with a BA in Math. It helped that he told all of his professors at the start of every semester that he had a 4.0 GPA and he needed to make sure he got an A in that class, so they should let him know if there was anything getting in the way of that.

After graduating from BYU, Jeff accepted a job with the National Security Agency in Washington D.C., where he made many lifelong friends. Always the life of the party, he and his friends threw elaborate parties and dances, had movie nights most weeks, went on trips, and played Ultimate Frisbee every Saturday. He DJ’d many dances. He was also active in his church and served in the temple every Saturday before playing Frisbee.

Jeff left NSA and the D.C. area to pursue graduate studies at U.C. Berkeley, but about that time his sister, Cami, introduced him to a young woman named “Tammy,” who had actually been in his church community in D.C. Intrigued by the idea that there was someone there that he didn’t know, he agreed to take Tammy to lunch, and the rest is history. He transferred from UC Berkeley to UC Santa Cruz so he could marry Tammy, who was pursuing a Master’s Degree at the Naval Postgraduate School. They lived in Pacific Grove, CA, just a block away from the beach for about a year, where he and Tammy enjoyed walking on the beach, taking drives, going on bike rides, and being close to family. He worked at a record store on the side.

Tammy was in the USAF, so when she and Jeff had both finished their master’s degrees, they ended up in England, near London, where they lived in the gatehouse of a 13th century Tudor Manor in a small village. There, Jeff drove all over the country teaching “maths” at various bases. He was very happy to be driving a used Toyota Celica sports car, but unfortunately, ignored the red oil light for a little too long and blew up the car. A quick study, he never made that mistake again. As he always had, Jeff made many lasting friendships in England and loved experiencing the culture, the people, and the beautiful scenery.

Still having a deep desire to pursue his education, when Tammy got out of the Air Force, they moved to the small town of Oakridge, Oregon. Jeff started working towards a PhD in Computational Linguistics at the University of Oregon in Eugene, while also serving in many callings in his local congregation. He was a scout master and Young Men’s leader, an organist, a pianist for the primary children, and probably had a few more responsibilities as well. He was always willing to serve wherever and whenever he could.

After about a year and a half, Jeff decided it was more important to get a job than to complete his degree, so he found work with a speech company in MA. Jeff and Tammy bought some land and built a house in Tyngsboro, and his first and only son, Ben, made his way into the world not long after that. He got great satisfaction in telling people that Ben’s full name is Benjamin Jeff’s son—I mean Jefferson-- Adams, and that he was born on Washington’s birthday in Boston. Anyone who has spent time with Jeff over the past 28 years knows how much he adores Ben. He was always a proud papa.

For the past 30 years, while in Tyngsboro, Jeff had a successful career that spanned several companies, including Lernout and Hauspie, Nuance, Yap, and Amazon before he founded his own companies, Cobalt and Canary. He led the team that created Alexa and has used his talents as a speech scientist and leader to bring speech products to educational, medical, agricultural, military, and entertainment institutions, among others. He loved his coworkers and was always genuinely concerned about their welfare and happiness. He created a remote work environment before it became a necessity with Covid, but recognized that team unity and collaboration was important, so he would plan Cobalt Workshops, which he called COWS. During those workshops, he would rent a few large houses or other spaces, and everyone would live together for a week, working hard during the day and playing games in the evenings. And, as the fun lover that he was, he made sure to include at least one special outing—maybe a special dinner or show, maybe a day at Disneyworld, a drive, or a ride through the swamps of Florida on an airboat, for example. Places the team met have included Austria, Utah, and Florida. He loved the members of his team and considered them family.

Jeff has always been a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, and he also loved his church family. He served wherever there was a need, including as an organist, a primary song leader, a stake executive secretary, ward clerk, a branch president, the Lowell Ward’s first bishop, a seminary teacher, a temple worker, a primary teacher, and a Sunday school teacher. Jeff loved to serve in the church and especially loved the Lowell Ward. In fact, he made himself the historical expert of the ward and surrounding area.

Through the church, Jeff made many close friends with whom he shared pot luck meals, conversations, Christmas caroling, get-togethers, and camping trips. He loved Christmas and always went caroling and invited friends over to share in the season’s festivities as much as possible. He will be remembered for his snickerdoodles. He also loved throwing elaborate birthday parties for Tammy and Ben.

In fact, Jeff loved adding a touch of magic to anything he touched, so you can imagine how he felt about Disneyworld. He loved it so much, he actually bought into the Disney Vacation Club. As most of you know, he had trouble walking in his later years, but he would take his scooter to Disney and ride it through the parks and from park to park. It was obvious to see that he felt free and happy to be entirely mobile at Disney. Just days before he died, he was talking about his next Disney trip and how he wanted to be there already.

Jeff was smart, fun, and spiritual. He loved life, he loved his family and friends, and he loved and had a strong testimony of his Savior. One of Jeff’s favorite quotes was from Dr. Suess’s “One Fish, Two Fish, Red Fish Blue Fish”: “If you never did, you should. These things are fun, and fun is good.”

Relatives and friends are invited to Jeff’s Celebration of Life on Monday, May 12, 2025 from 5 until 7:30 PM at THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS, 421 Princeton Boulevard, Lowell. His funeral service will be celebrated on Tuesday at 10 AM in the church. Burial to follow in Pine Grove Cemetery, Westford.